My Buddy just tipped me off that RHEL 7.4 is now out, that means CentOS 7.4 can't be too far behind, and time for me to start making preparations for the Upgrade from 7.3 --> 7.4.

I noticed that there apparently are a lot of new goodies in RHEL 7.4. Can I simply "roll over" 7.3 --> 7.4 via yum (which would be the easiest way), or will these new goodies conflict with all my currently installed programs, or will they simply be updated at the same time?? Or is it advised that I bite the bullet and do a Fresh Install and start from scratch? Will /var/lib/yum be wiped out and the NEW packages for 7.4 be installed, or will I still have whatever packages from 7.2 and 7.3 still in /var/lib/yum/yumdb?

I noticed that RH has done something with AUDIT -- this was the thing that almost ate up my entire /var partition and which I fixed by switching from gdm --> sddm. Assuming -- which might be a BIG mistake -- that I can simply "roll over" the machine from 7.3 --> 7.4 will all my custom fixes, get wiped out and will I be forced back into gdm?!?

Finally does any one know what the latest kernel series is going to be, and what version of KDE is going to be used (since I use KDE not GNOME)??

I tried to do a package search on RHEL 7.4 and came up blank, and there was ZERO on KDE. Any idea where I can find a list of the packages that will be found in 7.4?

Are the prospects good that CentOS 7.4 will be released sometime by late September or early October?!?

1. In principle a simple 'yum update' should do fine. It will tell what it will do and does show the config files that do not trivially merge.

2. There are customizations and there are customizations; not all are equal.2a. yum update updates already installed packages. For example, it should not update gdm if you don't have one. However, a package might pull in other packages due to dependencies.2b. If you have edited a config file that belongs to a package, the update might be incompatible and that you have to manually resolve.2c. Many programs already support "do not edit my file, add customization into this directory". This makes local changes more clear. It is still possible that your old options are no longer valid with new binary, or that new defaults differ while old defaults did not require customization.

3. Considering the backport strategy of RH the version numbers are not important. Just assume that they are same old, same old, with a whiff of borrowed items and blue.

4. There is no "CentOS 7.3" or "CentOS 7.4". There is simply CentOS 7, where you either have performed yum update regularly, or have neglected such essential step.

5. A new package can obsolete old packages, i.e remove something. It is still possible that earlier CentOS had "default installed packages" that current CentOS installer would not include. Having a package installed, but unused is no crime. The yum has tools to list orphans, leaves, etc.

There are a few significant rebases: gnome from 3.14 -> 3.22, openssl from 1.0.1e -> 1.0.2k, openssh from 6.6p1 -> 7.4p1. I suspect that httpd will also now do http/2 with ALPN as the newer openssl supports it. Upstream release notes are on https://access.redhat.com/documentation ... ise-linux/

CentOS 5 died in March 2017 - migrate NOW!Full time Geek, part time moderator. Use the FAQ Luke

I'm interested to know if RHEL/CentOS 7.4 will have support for AMD's Ryzen/Threadripper/EPYC. I tried to move my CentOS 7 install to my new Ryzen 7 1700 desktop and it failed badly, so I'm on Fedora 26 on that for the moment.

Looking at the single-page version of the Release Notes for 7.4 (so I can search them!), the only commitment is that RHEL 7.4 is available for "64-bit AMD" - there's no specific mention of AMD's latest chips. Considering it took until kernel 4.10/4.11 to get full Ryzen support and 7.4 will come with 3.10.0, we can only hope for a lot of backporting from 4.10/4.11...

BTW, I max-spec'ed up one of Pogolinux's "desktops" at around $48,000 - has two EPYC server chips in a desktop tower Now one of those running RHEL/CentOS 7 would be a beast...